War in Afghanistan (2001-present)

The Lehigh Valley Military Affairs Council recently awarded scholarships to 11 veterans and six high school graduates for outstanding achievement. LVMAC supports the Valley's active-duty service members, reservists, veterans, and their families. The nonprofit has given out more than $100,000 in scholarships since 2006. This year's recipients made up the largest group. The veterans are: Christopher Karlic, an eight-year Marine Corps veteran, is studying for a bachelor's degree in social work at East Stroudsburg University. He plans to counsel vets with post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other issues. Mark Pagano, a Marine Corps corporal in the Afghanistan War,...

Related "War in Afghanistan (2001-present)" Articles

A suicide car bombing near a U.S. military base in eastern Afghanistan that once hosted CIA employees killed dozens of civilians Sunday, local officials said, the latest insurgent attack after foreign forces ended their combat mission there.
Local media,...

When President Barack Obama draped the nation's highest award for combat valor around the neck of an Afghan war hero at the White House in October 2013, a highly decorated Green Beret officer who sat nearby faced an ugly reality: The Army was...

In a mountain pass in what Ross Ritchell's characters call "Afghanipakiraqistan," members of a U.S. special ops team debate the threat posed by a young boy standing on a rock just 50 meters away. He could be a harmless goat herder or could be,...

What should have been an historic and joyous occasion — the ending of the Afghanistan war after 13 long years, the longest war in American history — is unsatisfying at best, more reminiscent of the Vietnam War than World War II.
Afghanistan is still in...

The U.S.-led coalition in Afghanistan formally ended its combat mission on Sunday, more than 13 years after an international alliance ousted the Taliban government for sheltering the planners of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on American cities.
About 13,000...

The massacre Tuesday at a school in Peshawar, Pakistan, is likely to set off a new round of fighting between the country's army and the Taliban. But the attack may also push President Barack Obama to renew the counterterrorism partnership with Pakistan...

President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing a broader military mission in Afghanistan in 2015 than originally planned, the New York Times reported on Saturday.
The decision ensures a direct role for American troops in...

To kill for your government, you must believe in what you're doing. If you don't, you walk away.
And you keep walking.
So it went for Chicago resident Rory Fanning. In his new book, "Worth Fighting For," Fanning shares the story of his walk...

"War," it's been said, "is God's way of teaching Americans geography."
Maybe we do learn how to locate the countries we invade or bomb on a map. But recent experience indicates how much we don't know about those societies, and how...

In the introduction to "Bedrooms of the Fallen," a new collection of photos by Ashley Gilbertson, author Philip Gourevitch invites readers to imagine Chicago emptied of all its residents. Each one of its 2.7 million inhabitants could stand for...

Five U.S. servicemen were killed in southern Afghanistan in a friendly-fire air strike during a security operation, Afghan police said Tuesday, days before a run-off round in the country's presidential election. The International Security Assistance...

Republican lawmakers angered by a White House deal to swap five Taliban prisoners for a captured U.S. soldier in Afghanistan on Monday demanded hearings over why the Obama administration reached the agreement without consulting Congress.Adding to...

The sole American prisoner of war held in Afghanistan was flown to a U.S. military hospital in Germany on Sunday after being freed in a swap deal for five Taliban militants who were released from the Guantanamo Bay prison in Cuba.
Army Sergeant Bowe...

President Barack Obama, flanked by the parents of a U.S. soldier released after being held for nearly five years by the Taliban, said in the White House Rose Garden on Saturday that the United States has an "ironclad...

KABUL, Afghanistan — One year after a 25-year-old diplomat from the Chicago area was killed in a car bombing in southern Afghanistan, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul remembered Anne Smedinghoff on Monday by reading poetry and releasing balloons in a courtyard...

Over 11 years, the United States has expended more than 2,000 lives and $620 billion fighting the war in Afghanistan and supporting the government of President Hamid Karzai. And what have we accomplished?
You can get an idea from Karzai's statement...

One evening in September 2009, I squeezed into a room packed with American Marines and British military officers at Camp Leatherneck, the desert base that served as headquarters for the 10,000 Marines who made up the first wave of President Barack Obama's...

The last two days have been a very bad spell in Afghanistan, with bombings that killed seven U.S. troops along with Afghan soldiers, police and civilians. But then, are there ever good days in Afghanistan?
Dexter Filkins' piece in the...

A standoff between police and anti-war demonstrators near the NATO summit at McCormick Place left several protesters bloodied and led to dozens of arrests, as delegates gathered for the first of two days of meetings. The confrontation, which flared up...

Will the final chapters of the Afghan war be written in Chicago? It's possible. At next month's NATO summit here, Afghan President Hamid Karzai and global leaders will discuss an exit strategy for foreign troops fighting the Taliban, a task no doubt...